Caroline Wozniacki vs Vera Zvonareva – Match Preview: TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships 2011
The eight of the world’s top professional female tennis players were set to compete at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships and were divided into their two Round Robin groups; White and Red. The second round robin matches
of the year-end Championships are set to begin on Wednesday the 26th of October 2011.
The two Red group challengers to take up swords against each other were; world number one Caroline Wozniacki and sixth seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva. The two have competed eight times against each other prior to this event;
in their head-to-head run and both have tied the series at four matches each.
The first time they met was in 2009 at BNP Paribas Open held in Indian Wells during the semi final. The two had battled it out on hard courts until finally Zvonareva emerged victorious in straight sets. However the same year,
the two battled racquets on hard courts at the WTA Championships but this time Wozniacki had won the match and avenged her loss. The last time the two met was this year at the final match in Doha and Zvonareva had sent Wozniacki packing to the locker to take
the title.
Zvonareva first played for the year-end Championships in 2004 and was unable to win any of the first three matches. The sixth seeded Russian had qualified once again back-to-back for two consecutive years; her most notable
performance at this event was in 2008 as she was a runner-up and had lost the final match to Venus Williams. In 2009, she was unable to perform to her utmost capacity and lost in the first round robin match.
The two rivals had met at the yearend championships last year in the semi final but Zvonareva was unable to take the competitive edge over Wozniacki and lost the match.
A lot was expected from Zvonareva but the Russian was unable to perform skillfully during tricky matches and had an incoherent year. Nonetheless, Zvonareva is a strong player, who made it to the finals of many tournaments
this year and she finished the season as a semi finalist in the major arena. The Russian was able to accomplish two WTA titles; one at Baku and the other at Doha and is currently ranked at number 6 in the WTA rankings.
On the contrary, the world number one had contested twice for the yearend Championships and the first time she took part was in 2009. The Dane had ousted Victoria Azarenka and Vera Zvonareva in the initial two round robin
matches.
Amidst 2010, she managed to score against Francesca Schiavone and Elena Dementieva in the first two round robin matches. She was also capable of defeating Russian Vera Zvonareva in the semi-final; however, she was unlucky
as her winning streak was put to an end by Kim Clijsters.
Wozniacki has never won a Grand Slam but she has managed to haul six titles this year. Opening the season with a semi final finish at the Australian Open, Wozniacki then accomplished her most important win at the BNP Paribas
Open at Indian Wells. In addition, she also bagged titles at Dubai, Charleston, Brussels, Copenhagen and New Haven.
A majority of tennis experts and pundits expect it will be a close duel between the two. However, Wozniacki might be able to bag the match in three sets; nevertheless, former world number two Zvonareva should not be undermined
and the Russian might just avenge her last year’s loss here.
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